Linda Bibeau ’20, a defender for Andover, pictured above in the team’s scrimmage against St.Mark’s earlier this season.

After receiving a pass from Emily Batchelor ’19, Marisol Nugent ’20 quickly played the ball to Anna Bargman ’21 who hit a hard one-timer straight to the back of the net, scoring one of her three goals of the game. The team went on to defeat Thayer 6-0. Its record now stands at 1-0.

This game followed the team’s three shut-out scrimmage wins. Over the course of the game, Thayer only had one opportunity to score, which was ultimately blocked by goalie Katie Wimmer ’21.

Before the game, the team hoped to communicate well in order to find more opportunities to score, according to Captain Meghan Ward ’19 and Kelly McCarthy ’19.

“Going into Saturday, our team goals were to start strong and play with intensity throughout the game, as well as communicate on the field and on the sideline,” said Ward.

According to McCarthy and Lily Rademacher ’21, the team’s defense did a good job at keeping the ball away from the goal for the majority of the game, which helped contribute to the shutout win.

McCarthy said, “The [defense] did a great job of stepping to pressure and moving the ball quickly up the field to the midfielders.”

“The ball was in Thayer’s end for the majority of the game, but Katie played amazingly and the defense did really well, too. When [Thayer] did get it down, we were quick to either clear it or steal the ball back. We also had very few corners, [which is] always a team goal, and something [Head Coach Kate Dolan] is really intent on minimizing,” said Rademacher.

Thayer had few opportunities to score over the course of the game. Wimmer attributed Thayer’s struggle offensively to Andover’s strong defense.

Wimmer said, “They only had one shot, and the defense did a really good job of making sure the ball didn’t get in the circle so they couldn’t take shots. We did have to defend a couple corners, but there was only one shot on net.”

“We dominated most of the game, so [Wimmer] didn’t get many shots, but she handled the ones she had well. With only one returning starter on defense, we have a lot of learning and adjusting to [do], but we got off to a great start on Saturday,” said Ward.

Andover’s offense was crucial to the win. The team quickly earned a lead by scoring four goals in the first half of the game.

Ward said, “Overall we were very successful, scoring six goals and letting up zero. Anna Bargman scored three goals which was definitely a highlight. Other than that we had three different goal scorers tally points as well, including newcomer Hannah Cuff [’21].”

Despite the team’s success, it still hopes to improve on cohesiveness, according to McCarthy and Ward.

“The team hopes to work on our placement in front of the net to optimize our reaction to rebounds,”said McCarthy. “We also plan to move the ball to open space and support our [defense] better as midfielders and forwards”

Additionally, according to Wimmer and Rademacher, the team also hopes to work on their energy and communication.

“It’s the people and the energy that set PAFH apart from other teams. In order to be the best that we can be we need to have that electricity on the sidelines to show our support for our teammates and hype each other up,” said Rademacher.